I often share air traffic control audio from emergency situations. More often than not, the pilots remain outwardly calm, no matter how serious the situation is. Well, here’s one of the most extreme audio recordings that I’ve ever heard (at least for a situation that ultimately had a positive outcome).
In this post:
Cessna Citation pilot struggles with flight controls
VASAviation has the incredible air traffic control audio of an incident that happened on Thursday, August 14, 2025. This involves a 24-year-old Cessna Citation jet with the registration code N802TD, which was departing from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE).
Moments after takeoff, the pilot declared an emergency, and reported problems with flight controls. The audio is incredibly intense, as the pilot is clearly using all his power to keep the plane in the sky — you can hear the alarms going off, you can hear him loudly grunting, and you can’t help but feel horrible for what he must have been dealing with.
The pilot requested to divert to nearby Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL), which is just nine miles away, given the longer runway. This emergency was so serious that the air traffic controllers didn’t even ask for the number of souls or fuel onboard. He repeatedly talked about how he’s “trying to get it on the ground right now.”
So, what could cause these kinds of flight control issues? As the pilot explained in one transmission, “I’m fighting this thing pretty seriously, it just came out of some maintenance and something’s misrigged on the controls.”
You can listen to the air traffic control audio for yourself below…
Kudos to the pilot for his great work!
Thank goodness that this situation had a happy ending, and ended with the plane landing safely in Fort Lauderdale. If this was indeed a situation where flight controls were misrigged, that’s a really dangerous situation, given that you just have moments to figure out how to troubleshoot this, especially during a critical phase of the flight, like takeoff.
Of course we always hope that maintenance is performed correctly, but this wouldn’t be the first time that a mistake during a maintenance process caused some serious issues.
This reminds me of the 2018 incident of Air Astana flight 1388, where the pilots experienced flight control issues just after takeoff. It was later determined that some maintenance wasn’t properly performed, which caused that issue.
Bottom line
A Cessna Citation pilot struggled to keep control of his aircraft after takeoff from Fort Lauderdale. The plane had just undergone maintenance, and the pilot seemed to think that some work was performed incorrectly on the controls. Well done to the pilot for getting the plane down safely. It sure makes for some interesting listening.
What do you make of this ATC audio?
Scary. Given the cause suspected by the pilot on the radio, reminiscent of this incident https://youtu.be/XOh87e7dX-E?si=vLNttFuNcaYcw4Ix wherein the Russian Defence Dept bought a fleet of Tupolev Tu-154 from an airline, stored them long-term, and rehabilitated the airframe in the video to use for smaller cargo/staff capacity than an Ilyushin IL-76. A universal connector that could be plugged in upside down, was. Nearly fatal Dutch roll resulted, in which corrective inputs amplified rather than dampened the...
Scary. Given the cause suspected by the pilot on the radio, reminiscent of this incident https://youtu.be/XOh87e7dX-E?si=vLNttFuNcaYcw4Ix wherein the Russian Defence Dept bought a fleet of Tupolev Tu-154 from an airline, stored them long-term, and rehabilitated the airframe in the video to use for smaller cargo/staff capacity than an Ilyushin IL-76. A universal connector that could be plugged in upside down, was. Nearly fatal Dutch roll resulted, in which corrective inputs amplified rather than dampened the problem. The pilots were able to learn and land back at Chkalovsky Airfield without injury. The plug was redesigned so as to be pluggable only correct side up.
Flight control rigging should never be an issue. Someone signed that off and is about to have their license suspended and or pulled.
Miami Center: "Fly heading 310 ... There's a Southwest plane on a 7 mile final"
Um, no. I'm flying a downwind, base, and final. I'm an emergency aircraft - I'm going to pretty much shut up on the radio so you can do your job and just get everyone out of my way, including telling precious Southwest to go around (which, in fairness, they essentially and finally did).
Seriously! In an emergency situation - especially...
Miami Center: "Fly heading 310 ... There's a Southwest plane on a 7 mile final"
Um, no. I'm flying a downwind, base, and final. I'm an emergency aircraft - I'm going to pretty much shut up on the radio so you can do your job and just get everyone out of my way, including telling precious Southwest to go around (which, in fairness, they essentially and finally did).
Seriously! In an emergency situation - especially with an unknown flight control problem where maintaining aircraft control is in doubt - you don't ask for permission with an altitude, heading, or course. You tell ATC what you are doing, and do it. This is not the time to take any delay vectors for their convenience.
Welcome to Florida…
Truth be told? …. It might have been a Max he was flying and not a Citation …. :-)
If it was misrigged, some mechanic’s license is on the line.
…. and I thought that it was the old and defunct kites like my AOP.6 which still needed to the rigged Tim …. :-)